Under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (“HSPD-12”) the U.S. Government has issued Common Access Cards or Personal Identity Verification (CAC/PIV) cards to federal employees, contractors, and service personnel for the purposes of verifying an individual's identity and providing secure access. An individual may authenticate their CAC/PIV card to obtain access to secure or protected web resources. The CAC/PIV cards are X.509 certificate based cards that are strongly resistant to identity fraud, tampering, counterfeiting, and terrorist exploitation. The cards may be issued by providers whose reliability has been established through an official accreditation process.